Communities of scammers are roaming the country

[00:00:01] It's devastating because I'm a single mom. I just went through breast cancer. You know, I'm just trying to pick up the pieces and they scam me at $20,000. That's a lot of money for me. We even found an example where the con men took things to the next level. Impersonating a real structural engineer, complete with a fabricated report, to make expensive foundation work seem legitimate.

[00:00:34] You probably haven't heard about the scammers we're going to talk about today. They move in groups from region to region and around the world. They scam people until the police get wise and either make arrests or chase them out of the area.

[00:00:51] I'm Jim Grinstead, and today we're going to talk about travelers. You may know them as gypsies. I'll tell you the difference in a moment, but if they arrive in your town, they can take a lot of money in a short time

[00:01:05] and be gone before anyone knows they've been working the area. Let's first get the name issue out of the way. The word gypsies is considered pejorative, although some in the group still use it and are proud of the name. Mostly when they talk about one another, they use the word Rom or Romani, which is the language spoken by the gypsies.

[00:01:31] The word literally means man or people or someone who has gypsy blood. It also means a married gypsy man. Before we get into the crimes, there are a few things you need to know. Most importantly, travelers aren't all scammers, but the scams they run are not entirely different. It's the scam you want to avoid, not the ethnicity or lifestyle.

[00:01:57] The reason I'll shortly stop using the word gypsy is that it's a misnomer. Among the groups, the overarching description is Romani or Rom. I'm now going to call on a Romani to give you a preface on Romani groups. You'll hear some unfamiliar words. That's because the Rom have their own language.

[00:02:20] Taven Bakhtale, my name is Florian, and I am here to teach you about the Romani subgroups around Saeulunga, the world. I guess you can call it gypsyography now. So since there are so many different groups, let's start off by making it a little bit easier for ourselves by dividing them into some overarching, more general groups.

[00:02:40] We can start off with the Kale. In Iberia, we have the Iberian Kale. In Wales, we have the Welsh Kale. And in Finland, we have the Finnish Kale. Now, even though these groups share the same name, they are pretty different from one another. So we'll talk about them as different groups altogether. Then in Central Europe, we have the Sinti Manus.

[00:03:06] And then north of that, in England and also Scandinavia, we have the Romanichal, Romanichal, and Romani travelers. Then we can go all the way down south to the Balkans, where we have the Horahane, or the Muslim Roma. And then the rest of Europe, in Central and Eastern Europe especially, we have a lot of groups who just identify as Roma or Romani. And then we'll talk about their subgroups within that as well.

[00:03:32] So within that Roma-Romani group, we can split that down even further into two main groups. The Vlach Roma and the Non-Vlach Roma. The Vlach Roma, also called Ola or Vlachuria, are the Roma whose ancestors were enslaved in Romania for 500 years during chattel slavery. Romanian was their main contact language. And after slavery, a lot of these subgroups migrated all over the world.

[00:04:03] Now one last thing before we start. Let's talk about some groups that people commonly mistake for Roma, but actually aren't Romani at all. We'll start off in Ireland with the Irish travelers. See, Irish travelers actually aren't Romani. They're actually indigenous Irish people who speak their own language that is not related to Romani. Next, we have the Dom people who live in North Africa and the Middle East. They speak the Domari language. And even though they're not Romani, they're actually a cousin group to us.

[00:04:32] So we both originate from the same people in India, the Doma people. But then the Domari people, they left a little bit earlier than us and they settled in the Middle East and North Africa while we settled in Europe. Then after both of us came the Lom people, who are also descended from that same origin, but they went and they settled in Armenia. Lastly, let's go talk about the Luli people, who are known as the Central Asian Gypsies because they are also thought to have come from India.

[00:05:00] However, it's unclear if they're related to us as Romani people. What I do know is that the Ruska Roma unfortunately do not consider them to be related to us. As you just learned, it's complicated.

[00:05:27] Now, I'm not an apologist for traveler thieves, but I think there is something else you should know about their history. It impacts why some of them diverged into criminal enterprises rather than more conventional ones. There's one other extremely important story you need to know about the Romani. It's told by AI voice Julius.

[00:05:47] In the autumn of 1941, German police authorities deported 5,007 Roma from Austria to the ghetto for Jews in Lodz, where they were housed in an apartment block in a segregated section. Hundreds of Roma died in a typhus epidemic within the first months of their arrival, due to lack of adequate food, fuel, shelter and medicines.

[00:06:12] German SS and police officials sent those who survived these dreadful conditions to the killing center at Chelmno in the first months of 1942. There, the SS and police murdered the Roma in gas vans using carbon monoxide. In the near future, German authorities confined all Roma in so-called gypsy camps.

[00:06:36] With the suspension of deportations of Roma in 1940, these facilities became long-term holding pens. Marzahn in Berlin, along with Lachenbach and Salzburg in Austria, were among the worst of these camps. Hundreds of Roma died as a result of the horrendous conditions. Local Germans repeatedly complained about the camps, demanding the deportation of the Roma interned there, in order to safeguard public morals, public health and security.

[00:07:03] Local police used these complaints to appeal officially to Reichsführer SS Chief Heinrich Himmler for the resumption of deportations of Roma to the east. In December 1942, Himmler ordered the deportation of all Roma from the so-called Greater German Reich. There were exceptions for certain categories, including people of pure gypsy blood,

[00:07:27] those of gypsy descent who were considered integrated into German society and therefore did not behave like gypsies, serving soldiers and decorated veterans, people engaged in necessary war work and individuals married to non-Roma. Local authorities, however, often ignored these distinctions during roundups.

[00:07:53] Police authorities even seized and deported Roma soldiers serving in the German armed forces while they were home on leave. In general, the German police deported Roma in the Greater German Reich to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where the camp authorities housed them in a special compound called the Gypsy Family Camp. In the so-called Gypsy Compound, entire families lived together.

[00:08:23] In total, some 23,000 Roma and Sinti were deported to Auschwitz. SS medical researchers assigned to the Auschwitz complex, such as SS Captain Dr. Josef Mengele received authorization to choose human subjects for pseudoscientific medical experiments from among the prisoners. Mengele chose twins and dwarves, some of them from the Gypsy Family Camp, as subjects of his experiments.

[00:08:51] Approximately 3,500 adult and adolescent Roma were prisoners in other German concentration camps. Conditions in the Gypsy Compound at Auschwitz-Birkenau contributed to the spread of infectious disease and epidemics, typhus, smallpox and dysentery, which severely reduced the camp population.

[00:09:19] In late March, the SS murdered approximately 1,700 Roma from the Bielestock region in the gas chambers. By mid-summer of 1944, the SS moved against the inmates on August 2nd and killed between 4,200 and 4,300.

[00:09:48] None of this is intended to excuse criminal acts committed by some travelers, but it does help explain the nomadic nature of the cultures, their differences, and how a people without a country continue to exist as a community, although a fractured one. It's believed the first travelers arrived in North America as deportees from England. The earliest documented evidence dates back to 1695 in Henrico County, Virginia.

[00:10:16] Most of the groups live and work in Europe, and it's estimated there are 12 to 15 million individuals worldwide who consider themselves wrong. When Romani and the Khan business come into an area, they work about a 45-mile radius, then move on. Their help isn't so helpful for tri-state residents. Robin Bernthal and her friends have seen them near local parks and know people who have fallen victim. They said they were coming to repair her water,

[00:10:45] so of course she let him in because something obviously was wrong with her water. She thought it was the water man, and they stole her blind of all her jewelry. While police ask WLWT to make the announcement in order to warn residents, police sometimes aren't helpful or decline to provide helpful details. In 2024, in order to learn more about travelers, I went to a conference in New Jersey. It was intended to teach police officers how to investigate these crimes.

[00:11:14] One of the unsigned reports handed out to the class was an investigator's reference on travelers. It opens with these words, read by AI voice Tamika. Criminal profiling is an investigative method in which a police officer, through observation of activities, identifies suspicious behavior patterns by individuals and develops a legal basis to detain and question.

[00:11:37] In racial profiling, one uses race, color, or national origin as the only factor in their decision makings for stops, detaining, interdiction, or searching of any individual. Criminal profiling can be defined as examining a particular crime and determining whether that crime is being committed in a specific way and whether it is being committed by a specific type of person.

[00:12:03] Ethnic groups of people are very often responsible for committing certain types of crimes, such as the Italians on the East Coast being heavily involved in racketeering. Racial profiling is when you simply look at the racial aspect of the crime instead of the criminal aspect. Criminal profiling relies on correlating known behavioral factors and past law enforcement experiences. The most important aspect of criminal profiling is to establish a specific group of suspects

[00:12:32] and to also eliminate suspects. Yes, Virginia, police do profile. About 20 minutes after the conference started, I was thrown out. I talk about that more in our episode on why victims of cons have so little luck in receiving justice. I sought a chance to learn, but the police didn't want to teach the public and the result is that I lost $1,500. I refer you to the Patreon plea at the end of the podcast.

[00:13:01] Now, police profiling is both legal and illegal, depending upon the circumstances. Illegal profiling can get evidence thrown out of court and the public loses money spent on lawsuits. How would you or the police know if you're dealing with a traveler? Well, you probably wouldn't unless you know a scam has been committed and even then travelers are really good at hiding what they do. Take the case of a traveler who offered a woman a great deal on driveway paving.

[00:13:30] He just happened to have extra asphalt from a job he did just down the road. KRQE in New Mexico has been following the traveler's activities for years and one day they caught up with the group. Earlier this year, Jerry dropped by this rural Valencia County home and introduced himself to retired state employee Brian Culp. He asked me if I'd be interested in having my driveway asphalt.

[00:13:56] He said he had some leftover mix from a previous job and he usually charged $6.50 a square foot. He would give it to me for $2.50 a square foot. I don't have it every day. It's once every... So at the end of a week is when I have it. Jerry was paid $9,700 to pave Brian Culp's driveway. The out-of-state construction crew spent an afternoon laying asphalt

[00:14:22] and then Jerry Thorndike hightailed it to the bank to cash Brian's $9,700 check. What was left behind was one heck of a mess. Now it's only been five weeks and already this driveway has fallen apart. Take a look. Now the specs for residential driveways is about two and a half inches of compacted asphalt. This paving is less than an inch. If you had to grade this asphalt job A to F, what do these guys get? Probably a D minus.

[00:14:51] Albuquerque Asphalt's Robert Wood is a licensed paving contractor. He evaluated Jerry Thorndike's work. Does it look like to you that this was a professional job? No. No. No, they didn't have any intent in making a professional job. This was get it done and get that check and get to the bank. It was put down cold and there was a lot of handwork that was done unnecessarily and this is what you get.

[00:15:21] So this right here is not going to last. Bottom line, Brian, you think you got cheated? Oh, no doubt. This is one of the reasons it's difficult to see a traveler coming. When they're setting up a scam, they'll roll up with real construction equipment. You'd have to ask yourself what kind of scam artists would show up with all this expensive gear if they weren't serious. Well, that's part of the scam. Take this case reported by Fox 2 in St. Louis.

[00:15:50] Isabel Dimitru and Yvonne Laurentiu Miguel are each charged with felony illegal use of a credit card scanner after a St. Louis police investigation into alleged crimes at ATMs from April 1st to this past Monday. A probable cause statement adds the defendants are Romanian nationals with no home address and that the Department of Homeland Security has already started deportation proceedings, noting it is further believed the defendants are part of an organized Romani crime group.

[00:16:20] St. Louis is the third location in the metro area reportedly targeted by Romanian organized crime. Arnold police busted a Romanian crime ring in 2022, tracking three different suspects now convicted in a gift card sleight-of-hand scheme that netted more than $224,000. Then in 2023, St. Charles police busted an alleged jewel theft ring that was operating out of a short-term rental property.

[00:16:46] Seven suspects, identified as Romanians, police say they were confirmed members of the Balkan network. Travelers do different kinds of construction. Some replace windows, do roof or foundation repair. Often the result is that work begins, some money changes hands, and the work is either done poorly or the scammer takes the down payment and runs. Over the several days I was writing this script, I had a home repair person appear on my porch,

[00:17:16] a window replacement person rang my doorbell, and I observed two violin scammers at area stores. I passed the information on to the police, but I have no idea whether it will make a difference. Travelers also like insurance scams. They may take out large insurance policies on one another, then collect when the person dies. If the person lives longer than the group wants, murder isn't uncommon.

[00:17:44] Sympathy isn't high on the agenda either. A man from the Irish traveler community has been arrested for allegedly scamming an elderly woman with memory loss out of nearly $50,000. The man is accused of tricking the 80-year-old woman into writing 12 checks, totaling more than $49,000 for home maintenance work. The victim, who may have dementia, reportedly couldn't remember if she'd already paid for the work.

[00:18:18] Authorities said the man is part of the Irish traveler community in North Augusta, Georgia, where some members have been linked to complex fraud schemes in the past. In 2017, 21 Irish travelers admitted to being part of an organized crime group involved in various scams. Travelers like to play the role of fortune tellers.

[00:18:46] Britain's Daily Mail, said a crime network based in Bulgaria, may have preyed on the psychological fragility of a Catholic charity's financial director, allowing them to steal 51 million pounds from the organization. Criminals posing as Caritas executives reportedly emptied 14 bank accounts in Spain after ordering the financial director to make more than 120 transfers of 500,000 euros over five months.

[00:19:20] Investigators believe the plot was orchestrated by a complex criminal organization. The only person charged so far is the unnamed financial director, who's accused of creating false accounts. She is alleged to have confided sensitive details about Caritas to a clairvoyant based in Belgium, but headquartered in Spain. The fortune teller then reportedly passed this inside information to the crime group.

[00:19:48] The scammers were then able to take advantage of the financial director's psychological fragility and the charity's poor accounting practices to steal 65 million dollars over several months. Authorities said about 27 million was sent to China, 11 million to Hong Kong, and 9 million to Lithuania. Prosecutors said they've connected about 8,200 transactions

[00:20:16] to hundreds of accounts around the world, and that pointed to an organized criminal operation. Caritas Luxemburg said the theft amounts to its entire annual budget. And at Fox 5 in Washington, D.C., other churches have felt the impact of a Romani visit. Investigators tell me this is a group of criminals from Romania

[00:20:42] who travel the United States and specifically target religious institutions. So far, this year in Montgomery County, they've already hit up five places. Two mosques, two Buddhist temples, and one Hindu temple. This is not a hate crime, and they generally are a crime of opportunity. So it is traumatic for the victims, but to hopefully not live in fear. They don't want conflict. But this is how bold and brazen these criminals are.

[00:21:12] Surveillance video from the Watai Buddhist temple in Silver Spring from Sunday shows the men walk in while dozens of people are in the other room attending a funeral luncheon. They sneak upstairs and steal a safe from the monk's residence. Inside was $20,000 in donations from members that the monk was planning to deposit the very next day. I spoke to other temples in Maryland and Northern Virginia who have been targeted in recent weeks as well. And let me tell you, this is a crime that is often underreported.

[00:21:42] The monk's telling me they believe in karma for these thieves. This temple in Akakik, Maryland, sent me security photos of a group of men breaking in in mid-March. They damaged the door, but they weren't able to get anything because the monks saw what was happening. They scared them away. So now that you've learned about travelers, what do you do? Well, you do the same thing as with any other scam. Stay alert. Slow things down and verify the facts independently.

[00:22:10] If someone wants to do work on your house, get a second opinion. Make sure the original bidder has a contractor's license with no complaints against it and get bids from many companies. If a bidder can't provide these simple proofs, including a business card, walk away. If the work is needed, this is not your only opportunity to get it done. You've survived thus far. Odds are that the two weeks it'll take

[00:22:38] to find a reputable contractor won't make a difference, and it could save you tens of thousands of dollars. Oh, and as for the guy who knocked on my door as I'm writing this, there was no address on the flyer. There were several phone numbers on the internet, but they didn't match the one on the flyer. That could be because the company operates in several cities, and for marketing reasons, it makes sense to have a local number. The flyer also says the company has been locally owned since 1990.

[00:23:07] But if it operates in several cities, which one is the locally owned one? The Better Business Bureau says it's headquartered in a St. Louis suburb. The salesperson told me the company is accredited by the Better Business Bureau, which basically means the company responded to complaints, not that there was a resolution. As of November 7, 2024, its accreditation was suspended, and it had 83 complaints in the past three years.

[00:23:35] AI Voice Tamika reads from the Bureau's website. BBB ratings represent the BBB's opinion of how the business is likely to interact with its customers. The BBB rating is based on information BBB is able to obtain about the business, including complaints received from the public. BBB seeks and uses information directly from businesses and from public data sources. In some cases, BBB will not rate the business

[00:24:04] for reasons that include insufficient information about a business or ongoing review and update of the business's file. BBB ratings are not a guarantee of a business's reliability or performance. BBB recommends that consumers consider a business's BBB rating in addition to all other available information about the business. So a BBB rating is worth what?

[00:24:32] Travelers aren't likely to meet even the BBB's low bar. So how do we protect ourselves? I hate to say it, but be suspicious. The world isn't as dangerous a place as some make it out to be, but if someone you haven't contacted shows up and offers to do the work or wants you to hire them, pull out the salt shaker. And it's very important to slow things down.

[00:25:01] Give yourself time to do research. Find out if the crew is legit. If they want the business, they'll be back. If they try to pressure you to make a decision on the spot, send them on their way. And as for the psychics, do I really have to explain that again? Go back to our episode in Season 1 about psychics to get the full story.

[00:25:37] If you enjoy the podcast and want to support it, please tell your friends and encourage them to listen. If you want to show us some more love, consider donating a few dollars a month via Patreon. It not only helps with expenses, it allows us to take the podcast to the next level, all without advertising. You can sign up by going to patreon.com and search for Scams and Cons. That's p-a-t-r-e-o-n dot com.

[00:26:06] You can also find a link in the show notes. Thanks for listening.